School Includes Therapy Dogs in Yearbook After Horrific Parkland Shooting
Tragedy has a way of defining particular places even if the people who live there wish it were different. Just drop terms like “Tiananmen Square,” “Chernobyl” or “Columbine,” and you’ll immediately have images spring to mind.
The same is now true of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, site of one of the worst school shootings in American history. But a little more than a year after the horrible massacre, students have tried to find a way to celebrate the good by getting creative with their yearbook.
How do you chronicle a year featuring such tragedy in a tome that people will view for years to come? Even more challenging, how do you do so in a sensitive and good-hearted way?
It’s most certainly an unenviable task. But according to Buzzfeed, teacher and yearbook adviser Sarah Lerner and the yearbook staff decided to bring a small element of comfort by focusing on something unexpected and delightful: therapy dogs.
“It’s a balancing act,” editor-in-chief Caitlynn Tibbetts, a 17-year-old junior, said. “After the shooting, we wanted that yearbook to be perfect and had to cover as much as possible.
“This year, we wanted to give proper representation of our school and who we are now without giving so much focus to what happened to us in the past. The therapy dogs are the one thing from last year that is permanent and positive.”
Indeed, the positivity the pups have exuded has helped students and staff alike more than you might imagine. Lerner said that she found herself surprised by the school’s reaction to the canines.
We’ve included these cuties in the yearbook ?? pic.twitter.com/CZScvAhjCN
— Aerie Yearbook (@AerieYearbook) May 3, 2019
“There’s nothing a dog can’t fix,” she stated. “I’ll be teaching, and in comes a dog, and these big 18-year-old adults all of sudden become mushy five-year-old kids, and it’s been such a comfort for us.”
The Sun-Sentinel reported that the dogs included a mix of breeds. Students got to interact with golden retrievers, golden doodles, Labradors, and more.
The dogs came courtesy of the Humane Society of Broward County, Canine Assisted Therapy Inc., Therapy Dogs International and Share-A-Pet. And they became such a part of the school that Lerner found herself struck by an epiphany.
While organizing a makeup picture day for the yearbook, Lerner realized that the dogs could have their own pictures included in the publication.
Including the therapy/service dogs in the yearbook is the best decision we’ve made so far like this one dog had a bowtie and my heart ??? pic.twitter.com/ecP9X01wqD
— natasha (@sighnatasha) October 4, 2018
“I told one of their handlers about it, and next thing I know, I had 15 dogs in the room,” she said.
“We sat them up on chairs, they were smiling for the camera. It was the greatest day of my life.”
Amazingly, the cheerful canines all sat perfectly for the pictures. And the impact it made reverberated around the school.
“It was such a mood lifter,” Tibbetts said. “Including them was a really good representation of our school and what we have gone through.
“Seeing them is something we look forward to every day. These dogs are going to be there until the last of us are gone.”
Lerner added that dog therapy was a game changer for everyone, saying, “I think it’s wonderful. … It provides this comfort, and it helps the kids, and it makes them happy, and it does the same for us as the faculty and staff.”
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